Samantha Morton: Nicole Kidman Is Taking My Roles

With two well-deserved Oscar nominations under her belt, Samantha Morton is one of the most-respected actresses in the world. She hasn’t parlayed that acclaim into box-office success, but that’s fine – she prefers the freedom of indie movies anyway. But these days, big-name stars are trying to muscle in on the indie action, hoping to gain some cred and grab a nomination come Oscar time. Morton takes these “slumming” celebs to task in a Guardian interview, singling out a certain Oscar-winning Aussie actress . When asked if she was bothered by demands that she look “sexy” for a role, Morton responds:

“It’s more about women like Nicole Kidman wanting roles that are meant to be for me. Movie star actors have their people look at Oscar-worthy films for them. They are looking for that nomination, which is more likely to come in a lower-budget film. The directors of those films might have been in touch with people like myself, or maybe Kate Winslet, Rachel Weisz, or Maggie Gyllenhaal, before they’ve got a producer. You meet the director a few times, develop a rapport … and before you know it they have Nicole Kidman doing your film because they’ve said to the director, ‘You can have $50m if you have her.’ So you get used to it.”

Get her, Sam! As if we needed another reason to loathe the world’s most overrated and overworked actress and the big, shiny, motionless fivehead we see far too often on the big screen.

Frankly, I’d rather see a Samantha-Nicole throwdown than a Kate Moss-Sienna Miller “catfight”. Nicole may have the height advantage, but Sam’s scrappy.

In other news:

• Rumor: Rachel Weisz won’t do any more Mummy films, but she’ll do Terminator 4?
• Emily Blunt says she was “body-slammed” by rabid fans of her boyfriend, crooner Michael Bublé.(Contact Music)
• Jim Broadbent, who’s currently filming Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, says even he gets starstruck around Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg.(Contact Music)
• An Andrew Davies adaptation of John Cleland‘s novel Fanny Hill is “the centerpiece” of BBC4′s fall schedule, reports TV Scoop.
• A Manchester judge calls a British daytime talk show “human bear-baiting which goes under the guise of entertainment.” Judge Alan Berg presided over the trial of a guest who head-butted another man on The Jeremy Kyle Show, Britain’s answer to Maury and Jerry Springer. According to BBC News, Judge Berg said, “It seems to me that the purpose of this show is to effect a morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people whose lives are in turmoil.” Here’s a clip of the show from YouTube.
• Tip from The Sun: You can re-live 40 classic EastEnders scenes in the BBC Worldwide channel over at YouTube.
• The Inside Soap Award winners have been announced – and they almost completely mirror the winners of British Soap Awards earlier this year.
• Can Doctor Who help make science “sexy”? Organizers of Britain’s Science Week “are keen to enlist the help of the Time Lord to reach out to the masses,” reports The Daily Telegraph.
• Prince Charles plans to skip a screening of Brick Lane, the adaptation of Monica Ali‘s controversial novel, reportedly because the event may attract protesters.(The Times)